Dear Authors,

Many thanks for the detailed and thoughtful responses that you have given to each of the manuscript reviewers. At this stage I am recommending this paper be "reconsidered after major correction". To clarify, this is not because there are any major flaws in the work you have submitted, but given the extent of changes you are suggesting regarding the numerical approaches (as suggested by one of the reviewers) and re-jigging the text to focus on known environmental changes across your timeframe (as opposed to a selected few) - I would very much like to have the paper double-checked by an independent referee after the revised version of the paper has been submitted.

I look forward to see the next iteration!

Best wishes
Keely

Dear authors,

Many thanks for all of the work that you have put into revising your manuscript - especially with everything that has come your way on top of Covid. I have now received an additional review from one of the original reviewers of your paper. I asked for this additional review, not because the science was in question, rather the addressing of the reviewer comments had led to a substantial revision of the paper.

I am pleased to inform you that the reviewer has responded positively (though note below a small number of technical corrections), and having read the paper also I am very happy to accept your paper subject to those technical corrections.

Once again, thank you for your revisions - I look forward to seeing this paper in print!

Best wishes
Keely

"This is an interesting manuscript that explores how different modes of climate variation during the last 16ka affected diatom diversity and productivity in Lake Baikal. I reviewed an earlier version of this manuscript and liked it the first time, but the revised version is considerably stronger. The interpretations are rigorous, well-founded, and generally quite interesting.

I noticed a very few small mistakes while reading:
Line 225-7: sentence needs to be rewritten
Line 420: waters start to stratify
Line 429: Ocean
Line 446: a general increase in P availability – or – generally increased P availability
Line 448, 465: remove comma (don’t split subject and verb with a single comma)
Line 502 and elsewhere: sometimes Si is used, sometimes dissolved silica, sometimes silica, etc – be consistent
Line 530: change on to in
Line 547: comma after acus
Line 554: change is to are
Lines 561-2: Northern Hemisphere
Line 564: remove comma"